Finite State Machines

Finite state machines are systems consisting of inputs, outputs and some means of maintaining a finite number of states. The current state of a machine determines how the machine acts. A very simple example would be a machine consisting of a power source, switch and light bulb. The light switch determines the binary state of the machine, and the lightbulb is the output. In electronics the state typically takes the form of an encoded state number stored in flip flops, which are devices which hold a state of 1 or 0 (similar to RAM but only hold one binary digit, so several are used to increase the number of states possible). The machine changes state every time a certain condition is met. This condition is typically every time a clock signal has a low-high or high-low edge(the clock signal switches from a low signal to a high signal, or vice versa). The new state that the machine changes to is determined by the current inputs, the current state, or both.
There are two secific types of finite state machines, based on how the state machines outputs are determined. The mealy machine has outputs that are determined by its inputs and its current state. The moore machine has outputs that are only determined by its current state. This concludes my brief overview of finite state machines.


News for Today
Yoda continues to improve with his training. I'm even seeing an improvement with his jumping. He still jumps up on you when he gets excited, but now he calms down much faster. Before, when he got excited and started jumping, I would have to hold him on a sit forcefully until his breathing slowed down and he calmed down. Now when he gets excited and jumps off, I tell him off and he gets down and I then instruct him to sit, which he does and then he is much calmer. This is very good, because he needs to be able to calm down on command, otherwise he will be too high strung and it will make life at my hosue very difficult. Tomorrow I will probably take him to the pet store to pick out a new chew toy. I will also pick up a new beef knuckle for him. I won't give it to him for a while but he loves his current one, so I want to have a replacement ready for when I have to take it away from him when it is too small.
In other news, my car may be gone in a week, hopefully. It depends on what saturn is willing to give on it for a trade. If the trade will cover most of my loan, then I will let my parents take it as a trade for the new car they might be getting. Which they are going to let me drive until my mom's lease expires in late December. At which point, I would need to buy a new car for myself. I might go with a used car this time around, I kind of miss having a disposable income. Plus, I could get a nicer quality car than a mid level Saturn ION for less money if I go used.